A great road in Bolivia.

We took over five days to drive
the 450km from Samaipata to Sucre via Materal, Vallegrande, Pucara, a very fine
cable-stay bridge, Nuevo Mundo, Villa Serrano, Tomina and Tarabuco. And a
splendid drive it was too!

The route was offered as a four day mini-bus/taxi excursion from
Samaipata by a tour operator (on the La Vispera camp site) and described as the
"Antique Trade Route to Sucre".

However, Peter (the owner of the camp site) said we could do it in
our vans - "no problem". When he later expressed surprise that Mel was not four
wheel drive, we perhaps should have reconsidered the value of this advice!

Warning: We did
this route in July (the dry season). It would be far more difficult with even a
little rain! This route is right at the limit of what a standard rear wheel
drive motorhome like Mel should be asked to do. Not recommended for anything
with front wheel drive or longer than seven metres.

According to our brochure, the first highlights of the "Antique
Trade Route to Sucre" were the "enormous cacti" at Trigal.

Big: Yes. Enormous: No.

The second highlight was a visit
to the town of Vallegrande where we parked in the town square for the night
(the police moved us from one side of the road to the other, but did not object
to us sleeping in our vans in the centre of town.) S18.489845 W64.108265.

Vallegrande is famous (or infamous) for being the place where the
one time President of the Bank of Cuba's dead body was shown to the world's
press on top of two sinks in a hospital laundry. The laundry is now a centre of
pilgrimage and reverential graffiti. (The Bolivian army unit that killed him
were trained by the USA army. The CIA had already declared him dead in the
Congo. In 1997 the remains of Ernesto "Che" Guevera's body were found under the
airport runway and returned to Cuba.)

Rather surprisingly no t-shirts bearing Ernesto's likeness were on
sale in Vallegrande.

As you can see from our track (above)
the map (Reise Know-How Bolivia 1:1300,000) we were using for this route had
been reasonably accurate so far. Not any more!

Our next day's drive past Pucara was spectacular, though
considerably more difficult (Mel's rear chassis member scraping along the
ground several times) and we only covered 75km. We spent the night at a
magnificent cable-stay bridge across a major river. Remarkably neither our road
nor the river are marked on any of the three maps we have!

Whilst camped by the end of this bridge (apparently built in 1994)
and drinking our rather fine Chilean wine, we observed several birds (some were
condors for which you get lots of points, others were turkey-vultures, for
which you get far fewer points).

On day three, the road improved a little and we covered just over
100km. However, at one point Mel got stuck trying to climb out from a river
crossing up a steep bank. Mel was unable to reverse because the rear of the
chassis dug into the river bed and had insufficient power to climb the river
bank without being able to take a run at it. Rather than risk burning the
clutch out, Mel was manoeuvered to the side and Mog scraped passed to tow Mel
up the bank.

(Yes I know, the bank does not look steep, the river crossing does
not look rough, Mel does not look stuck, and there seems to be plenty of room
for Mog to get passed! Just ask Mick and Mo if they enjoyed it at the time.)

Our third night was spent near Tomina (S19.176510
W64.473395). The main road was under repair and the diversion took us down to a
river (again not shown on our map). When we parked up for the evening, the
river was negligible (Clive walked across it to take photographs). However at
03:00 in the middle of the night, it started to rain. At 03:15 we decided to
abandon our riverside camping spot and return to the higher (but closed) main
road 50 metres above the river. At 07:00 we made an early return to the
diversion to discover we had to drive both across and along the river over six
times. Both K-Nine and Mel made it thru without incident, although some water
got into Mel's lockers and heating system. A fun time was had by all (well by
Mog anyway).

When we reached Tarabuco, we decided to stay until Sunday to see
the "colourful indigenous market, the most renowned in Bolivia". Driving from
Tomina on the main road to Sucre there is a well-marked turning to the left,
that says "Welcome to Tarabuco". With Mog in the lead, we made the mistake of
taking it!

The initial wide welcoming road becomes narrow with overhanging
roofs and low cables. After a dead end, much reversing and turning round in the
middle of the street, we eventually found the way out. Unfortunately this
involved a turning between houses that was so tight both K-Nine and Mel had to
first reverse into the opposite street. Mog made it round but clipped the roof
of one house, for which 100 Bolivianos (about $12USA) compensation was
paid.

We eventually ended up parked in a bus and truck park above the
main square (S19.184413 W64.916915). To get there without the nightmare of
Tarabuco's narrow streets, drive passed Tarabuco towards Sucre and turn left
near S19.178088 W64.924345.

Stephen
Stewart.

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